HUNTINGBURG — After three quarters of nip and tuck basketball, the Dragons outlasted Southridge in the 4th quarter to move on to the Regional Championship. Leading the host Raiders 27-26 after three quarters, the No. 8 Dragons outscored Southridge 28-14 in the fourth quarter to secure a 55-40 win. Zane Gross scored eight of his game-high 14 points in the fourth quarter. Jack Hawkins added 12 points and nine rebounds and Senior, Bennett Beyl added eight points and eight boards in the win. Nine different Dragons scored in the win.

“Anybody can come off the bench and score for us,” Beyl said. “We’re deep and we have a lot of good players on the team.”

Southridge, which upset Vincennes Lincoln to win its first sectional crown since 2007, was led by former Jeffersonville Red Devil Joe LaGrange. He had 13 points.

The Class 3A No. 3 Bulldogs (24-4) hit 10 of their 16 shots in the first period and went 9-of-12 in the second. Meanwhile, the eighth-ranked Dragons (20-6) struggled to get anything going offensively. They were 20-of-52 from the floor, including 4-of-22 from behind the 3-point line, in defeat.

“I think [Bosse] is the best team in the state,” Silver Creek coach Brandon Hoffman said. “For us to have had a chance to win this, we would have had to had a really good shooting night and catch them on an off night. The exact opposite happened.”

Hoffman said Lairy and Chinn are always good, but they were deadly Saturday. Lairy was named the Regional MVP after scoring 57 points combined in wins over Greensburg and the Creek.

Chinn got the Bulldogs off to a great start with nine first-quarter points. After a Bennett Beyl 3-pointer gave the Dragons the lead — their only one of the contest — Chinn answered with back-to-back fastbreak layups. Moments later, he hit his first 3 and Bosse had a 9-3 advantage less than 3 minutes into the contest.

Lairy then got involved. He scored two baskets to extend the gap to 13-3. Chinn then converted a steal into a basket and it was 20-9. Baskets by Freshman, Trey Kaufman and Junior, Zane Gross got the Dragons within 11, but Javen Layne scored in the closing seconds of the opening period to put the Bulldogs on top 22-13.

Neither team scored for the first 2 1/2 minutes of the second quarter, but once Bosse started, it didn’t stop until the half. The Bulldogs ran off a 23-5 run in the second period behind 10 more Chinn points. His second 3-pointer of the stanza put Bosse ahead 39-15.

“We missed a lot of opportunity that we should’ve converted,” Hoffman said. “You never know what might have happened if we convert those.”

Lairy — who is 22nd on Indiana’s all-time scoring list — added seven points and three assists in the third and the Bulldogs were in control 66-35 heading into the final 8 minutes.

The Dragons outscored Bosse 20-15 in the fourth behind six of Gross’s team-best 14 points, but it was too little too late.